So you are at the point where your tailgate has gotten big enough you need your own identity? You are struggling to come up with a name that embodies who you are, what you are about, possibly rhymes or has alliteration, is catchy and is short enough to fit on a t-shirt. After all, “The Dan, Bob, Steve, Joe, Rhonda and Becky Miami Dolphins Supporters and Tailgate Party Group” really doesn’t have a catchy ring to it.

You need to find a name that helps you stand out from the sea of mediocre tailgaters and gives you your own identity. But how do you come up with a good one if you don’t know the rules? Well, good thing you are here because we will provide you a few easy to follow guidelines on selecting a name for your tailgating crew. More importantly we will provide you with the invaluable information in knowing which types of names to avoid. We’ll start with the ones you’ll want to avoid and work our way towards the types you should consider.

The Ill-Advised – Indoctrinating a Current Player’s Name into your Tailgating Crew’s Name.
How many times have you bought a jersey of that “can’t miss” rookie first round draft pick who ends up being a total bust? Hello? JaMarcus Russell? Ryan Leaf, anyone? More times than you care to remember I am guressing. Once they have achieved ultimate draft bust status, that jersey is going straight into the trash along with that guy’s career. So why would you entrust the name of your tailgating crew to include a player’s name that is currently on the roster?

Players get traded, get injured, suspended for using steroids, get arrested for domestic violence, get picked up on DUIs or the best case scenario, eventually retire. No matter how great you think the player is or will be, no player plays forever.

Take the Braylon Bunch for example. Named after wide receiver Braylon Edwards while he was playing for the Cleveland Browns, this tailgating crew must have thought they hit the jackpot when they chose this name. In 2008, Edwards led the NFL in dropped passes and was promptly traded to the New York Jets prior to the 2009 season. So much for Braylon Edwards still making an impact in Cleveland and so much for the Braylon Bunch having a cool and catchy name anymore. All of those t-shirts you see in the above photo have probably all been placed in a landfill somewhere outside of Cleveland. So unless you are 100%, guaranteed that the player you choose will never get traded and will have a Hall of Fame caliber type career, stay away from names that include a player on the current roster. You would hate to be a San Francisco based tailgating crew and be saddled with the name “Druckenmiller’s Drinking Crew” for the next few eons.

The Bad – Incorporating Extraordinary Former Players or Popular Former Coaches Into The Crew’s Name
Many tailgaters would think naming their tailgating crew after a popular coach or a Hall of Fame player might be a good choice. Then again, even though those players and coaches may have an unblemished reputation in your particular locale, unless they are deceased, they can still tarnish their good name and reputation. Imagine if you were a Buffalo Bills tailgating group and named your crew after O.J. Simpson. What if you were a part of a New York Giants group that named themselves after Lawrence Taylor? Both of those players had Hall of Fame careers but the life choices after their football careers were completed ruined their respect and good name forever.

Same thought process applies to coaches. I know Jim Tressel at Ohio State was beloved in Columbus but his recent involvement in an improper benefits scandal forced him to resign recently. If there was a tailgating group out there that chose to name themselves “Tressel’s Troopers” or “Sweater Vest Drinkers”, they are probably scrambling right now to come up with a new name.

The only exception that should be made are for those players and coaches who have passed on. There is no shame in a Chicago Bears group naming their crew “Walter Payton’s Posse” or Dallas Cowboys tailgaters calling themselves “Landry’s Lads”. Just make sure to do some research on the player or coach to ensure they were as squeaky clean as you remember them.

The Good – Including The Team City/University, Mascot or Colors Into The Group Name
Rarely does a a team change cities, mascots or colors. One rare case was when St. John’s University changed their mascot from the Redmen to the Red Storm. Until 1994, the St. John’s mascot was the Redmen, which referenced the red uniforms worn by the university in competition. However, the name was interpreted as a Native American slur in the 1960s, and was changed to the Red Storm after mounting pressure on colleges and universities to adopt names more sensitive to Native American culture. St. John’s tailgaters that adopted a group name that included Redmen might consider changing the name but the occurrence of a school changing its mascot is very rare. In light of the today’s politically correct culture and the mounting pressure by the NCAA for schools to abandon Native American mascots, those tailgaters may want to steer clear of incorporating Seminoles, Sioux or Redskins into their name just as a precaution.

The Best – Build Your Team Name From Your Own Blend of Personalities or Unique Meeting Spot
Enlisting this naming criteria takes some creativity and thought and is not just a cookie cutter way of creating a tailgating crew’s name. Consider naming your group based on where you park and tailgate. A group of girls who park near us in the Qualcomm Stadium parking lot for Chargers games are known as the “B3 Girls”. That’s because they always park under, you guessed it, the B3 light pole in the parking lot. Even fans inside known them as the B3 Girls and not by their individual names.

Renowned and notorious Washington Redskins tailgaters the Dead Tree Crew or DTC for short, garnered their name because they would park in a section of the parking lot where a dead tree had yet to be removed. The Unsupervised tailgating group got its name from an epic road trip while many of its members were in the middle of their college days at LSU. Several future members headed out of town for a drinking weekend without their “significant others” – they were truly UNSUPERVISED for the weekend, and a tailgating group with a mission was born.

Another aspect of your tailgating group name might be a specialty dish you are well known for or is always served at every tailgate party. Maybe you always have some sort of obscene amount of meat cooking and might call yourselves the “The Blue Lot Carnivores”. Maybe you serve a specialty drink in the lots that sets you apart? The rule here is to be creative while staying true to yourself and expressing your tailgate crew’s uniqueness.

Conclusion – Of course you can name your tailgating crew whatever you want. After all, this is still America and you can do as you like. But take it from a guy who has seen and heard about a lot of different tailgating groups. If you want to avoid the hassle of having to change your tailgating crew’s name, give this post a second read. If you are planning on spending the money to print up T-shirts or even more drastic, get a tattoo of your tailgating crew’s name, read this post a third time.

When Lou Brock, the Hall of Fame outfielder with the St. Louis Cardinals, wasn’t collecting stolen bases and base hits he was out hawking the Brockabrella. Today, he’s still lovingly remembered in the Midwest and across America for lending his name to this unique sun protecting device.

Not to be outdone Gene Mayfield, the inventor of the Auto-mo-brella, developed his own sun protecting device after attending a NASCAR race and watching people struggle with setting up their tailgating tents and umbrellas. Brock’s umbrella protects your head. Mayfield’s protects your car or truck.

Gene’s company, GTM Products, now offers the Auto-mo-brella, an over-sized umbrella set-up that works effectively for single person operations that aren’t looking to struggle with the complexities of setting up a multi-man tent.

Want a little less sun in your Outdoor fun?
The product is, essentially a high-quality, lightweight umbrella that easily locks into the back of your SUV or truck as a telescoping tailgating hitch. The device creates much needed shade and the umbrella pivots to protect you from the elements—no matter the time of day. It’s a simple one person set up and tear down–a process that went smoothly when I put the product through its paces.

There are a few requirements though. First, you’ll need a class two trailer hitch. Additionally you’ll need to plan to tailgate in a parking lot environment right behind where you park.

Deciding to allocate a precious trailer hitch is a big deal. Many of you have followed in Dave’s footsteps and have built out your own Tailgating Grill. Here’s a link to the most recent edition–a New York Giants edition. You’ll have to make the call on the priority for your tailgate.

For those that have other designs for the tailgating hitch, a nice addition to the product would be a stand. Whether on a hitch or on the ground the auto-mo-brella can provide much needed protection from the Texas sun. Our tailgating team talked about building one on our own so that we could protect our annexed grillers from the elements adjacent to our main tent.

The other prerequisite is a clear parking place. If you’re on an area removed from your vehicle, this product won’t make as much sense for you. If you’re in a parking lot it can be a great compliment to your tailgating exploits. The unit smartly avoids conflicts with the rear lift or tailgate of your SUV or truck.

The video of how the product works is shown below.

Pricing

Logo tailgating tents can cost anywhere between $99 and $229. The product as sampled here runs $119. While the Auto-mo-brella itself covers up and protects Tailgaters from the sun, the Automobrella’s cost doesn’t necessarily cover up the the comparable benefit found in acquiring a color matched, logo’d 9×9 tent that runs about the same price.

The Verdict?

Veteran football tailgaters won’t be as interested in this product as new tailgaters. The logo’d tailgating tent is a staple of tailgating pride and while it’s a little more expensive, it’s an important addition to football tailgating activities.

The product works well and as described, but the price point doesn’t make it attractive enough to recommend. There aren’t any complaints about the product. It’s high quality and it will help you take your tailgating to the next level. However, there’s another level just around the corner and it can be reached for close to the same price.

Other Options?

The company is moving aggressively in the tailgating space. They have two other products including a tailgate umbrella with and a tailgate party mate that functions as a picnic table. The items are listed on the Auto-mo-brella website for $299 and $124 respectively. They appear to be sturdy enough to withstand the most aggressive tailgating environment, just like the product I tested.

Other Details

The company is coming up to speed with a brand new website—launched September 1 as well as a new Facebook and Twitter presence.

To be quite honest with you, I am surprised it took us this long to do a New York Giants custom tailgating grill. The tailgaters that frequent the Meadowlands surely know how to do it right. This addition to the parking lot will only add to the atmosphere. Take a look.

If you want your own Margaritaville Tailgating Grill customized to your team’s colors and theme, visit our tailgating gear store, shop.tailgatingideas.com. To see other grills our readers and I have customized, visit the Custom Tailgating Grills page over there. If you’ve seen enough and just want to get a Margaritaville Tailgating Grill customized to your favorite team’s colors and logo, email us and ask for a quote.

The 2010 Major League Baseball got underway with the Yankees and Red Sox starting things off. The Red Sox won the game but more importantly, the folks at Boston Barstool Sports put together this video to get people pumped for the season. (Warning: Video contains NSFW language. Also, if seeing a girl give the camera the bird offends you, don’t watch and skip to the links below..)

Also, since next week will be the 100th edition of this little link dump, if you have suggestions on what video we should feature, leave a comment and we’ll take it into consideration. Links follow the video:

You may recognize Jim Florentine from his stand-up routines on Comedy Central or his voice from the show Crank Yankers. No matter how you know him his dry sense of humor and deadpan delivery makes him unique. Here he is pranking some Giants tailgaters in the parking lot.

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About Me

TailgatingIdeas.com is a tailgating blog dedicated to bringing you the latest and most intriguing tailgating ideas out there. Whether it is the latest tailgating gear reviews, a great new recipe or a funny list to make you smile, our goal is to inform and entertain the avid and the casual tailgater alike.

Started in August 2007 by tailgating enthusiast Dave Lamm, TailgatingIdeas.com has evolved into an advocate for tailgaters rights and is not afraid to touch on controversial issues confronting those who frequent the tailgating parking lots.

To learn more about TailgatingIdeas.com and our team of writers, reviewers, cartoonists and contributors, please visit the About Us page.